MAP Group member, Larry Watts, author of Right, Wrong and Rationalizing Truth and Cheating Justice, submitted the following article about his book marketing experiences.
A Case Study of a Book Marketing Plan
by Larry Watts
Each of us has experiences
to share about publicizing and marketing our books. Learning that your book
won’t “sell itself” often comes as a surprise to a new author, who then
realizes becoming a marketing and promotions genius is a required part of being
an author. I am privileged to share some of my experiences regarding my journey
to successfully marketing my books.
The publisher of my first
novel provided a list of marketing tips. I tried them all! First was the media
advisory/press release that I sent to over 100 news outlets based on criteria
suggested by the publisher. The response I received was less than flattering. I
eventually got three newspaper reviews, but in each case, I personally met with
either the editor or reporter and asked for the book review.
I sent e-mails to all my
friends and made a few sales. Then I paid a company to advertise my book by
sending out mass e-mail releases. My website registered 1000’s of hits, but not
a single book sale. I later learned that many of these companies use computer programs
to go to your website so that it appears you are getting visitors on the site,
but in reality it’s an automated system with no real visitors.
I then decided to try the
book fair route. There are several that take place in Texas throughout the year
and are relatively inexpensive, $35 to $50 for a table at what is usually a one
day event. I’ve now attended three of these events, each lasting six to eight
hours, not counting travel time. Grand total of sales for these events was four
books! But there was one bright spot. At one of the events, I received a free
copy of a book I’ve mentioned in a previous article: Publishing and Marketing Realities for the Emerging Author by
Christine Rose.
After reading this book I
decided to explore social media marketing. I built my database of Facebook
“Friends” and Twitter “Followers” and worked on expanding my e-mail list. I
noticed that other authors who were utilizing social media often offered a free
sample of their writing, either a short how-to book or short story. I decided
to add this to my arsenal of marketing tools.
Three months ago I
published the first in a series of short stories exclusively on Amazon as a
Kindle e-book. Amazon permits authors who enroll their work in Amazon’s KDP
Select program to offer it free for five days during each ninety day period it
is exclusively enrolled. The first free short-story was downloaded more than
100 times during the five day free promotion; but the great news was that I
sold 20 e-book copies of my other books in the U.S., seven in Great Britain,
and seven more in the rest of the World. That’s the best success I’ve
experienced in a single month with my book sales.
The following month I had
less than a hundred downloads of my new free short story, but still sold 18
other books in the U.S. and seven abroad. This month, after releasing the third
short story and advertising it for free on Facebook, Twitter and an e-mail
list, I have registered 17 other book sales. Although I still consider it an
experiment, it is an avenue worth exploring.
Finally, I have recently
decided to concentrate all my personal appearance book promotions at local
libraries that have “author hours”, “meet the author” programs, or some other
forum for writers to present their work to a local audience. I’ve attended two
of these events and sold a total of 12 copies of my books. As compared to the
long hours spent sitting behind a table at a “book fair” with very few sales,
the 45 minute presentation I made at each library was extremely successful.
I certainly do not have a
well-defined, successful, marketing scheme figured out yet; but these are some
of my observations gathered as I experiment with different techniques. I would
be interested in hearing other MAP Group member’s views on this subject. If you
would like to share your book marketing experiences with other authors, please
submit your comments to Gloria Lyons (gloria@gloriahanderlyons.com) for
the MAP Group blog.
